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Saturday, July 9, 2016

Tastes to Balance Pitta Dosha

Pitta is pacified by the sweet, bitter, and astringent tastes and
aggravated by the pungent, sour, and salty tastes. Understanding these
tastes allows us to better navigate a pitta pacifying diet without
having to constantly refer to extensive lists of foods to favor and
avoid.

Favor

The sweet taste is cooling and heavy but also anti-inflammatory. It
pacifies heat, satisfies thirst, benefits the skin and hair, and tends
to be grounding, nourishing, strength building, and satisfying.

Emphasizing the sweet taste does NOT require us to eat large
amounts of refined sugar or sugary sweet foods; naturally sweet foods
are best.

Bitter

The bitter taste predominates bitter greens – like kale, dandelion
greens, and collard greens. It is also found in bitter melon, Jerusalem
artichokes, dark chocolate and pitta pacifying spices like cumin, neem leaves, saffron, and turmeric

The bitter taste is exceptionally cooling, but also drying.

Bitters cleanse the pallet and improve the sense of taste. They
tone the skin and muscles, benefit the blood, relieve burning and
itching sensations, satisfy thirst, balance the appetite, support
digestion, and help to absorb moisture, sweat and excess pitta.

Astringent

The astringent taste is basically a flavor of dryness – a chalky
taste that dries the mouth and may cause it to contract (picture biting
into a very green banana).

Pitta is aggravated by the hot, light, and oily qualities of the sour taste.

Too much sour taste can increase thirst, disturb the blood, create
heat in the muscles, cause suppuration in wounds, and give rise to
burning sensations in the throat, chest, or heart. It can even promote
sour feelings like jealously or envy.

An occasional squeeze of cooling lime juice as a garnish is the best way for pitta to include the sour taste.

Salty

The salty taste is almost singularly derived from salt itself.

Much like the sour taste, it is salt’s light, hot and oily nature that aggravates pitta.

The salty taste can disturb the blood’s balance, impede the sense
organs, increase heat, aggravate the skin, intensify inflammation, lead
to the rupture of tissues, or cause water retention, high blood
pressure, intestinal inflammation, ascites, grey hair, wrinkles, and
excess thirst. It can also intensify our desire for stronger flavors,
which can provoke pitta even further.